The last day and a half

[mousme]

Dinner with the Parental Units went swimmingly. They brought me a Tintin poster of Tintin et le Crabe aux pinces d'or which we hung in my living-room.

They kept the bossiness to a minimum, which was a blessing, and we had a fun time, keeping the conversation light and fluffy. All unpleasantness was also kept to a minimum and brushed off with jokes as much as possible.

I think they were also impressed with my ability to actually put on a decent spread.

Slept in on Wednesday. Yar! Was hauled unceremoniously out of bed by cats, then concluded it was a good idea because I was almost late for lunch with firewillow. We went to a place whose name escapes me but was really quite good and the prices reasonable, and they actually served drinks in humongous proportions instead of itty-bitty ones. Food was more than decent, and the service was polite and efficient and solicitous but not overbearing, condescending or overanxious as the case might be.

Poor Fire was really upset about her grandmother, and there really was precious little I could do or say to make her feel better. I mean, I remember how it felt when my grandfather passed away this summer, and I wasn't even all that close to him. How devastating this must be for her I can't even begin to imagine...

Went to see shrink afterwards for first time in two weeks. Got a clean bill of health. I am officially in remission, folks! No more depression for me. Hah! Of course I still have to take the damned pills for another year, but it's still good news. :)

Decided on a whim to go to Mélange Magique, and met up with TT, RC's girlfriend and all-around kewl person. Just ask firewillow and fearsclave and rotagar what I'm talking about. She referred me to a good book on Wicca stuff, called Making Magick. Of course this grated, because I hate it when people spell "magic" that way, but it looks informative anyway.

Met up with curtana who was browsing for potential birthday presents, and moseyed off to Omer Deserres with her to ogle the art supplies. Bought myself two felt pens and more letter-writing stuff which is my latest passion along with Feng Shui and knitting. Will likely be doing creative stuff in the near future.

After that drove TT home, where I was to participate in RC's D&D game. RC was not in the best of moods, and I wasn't in the mood to put up with his crankiness and bossiness, but I managed to keep my tongue in check for most of the evening.

He barbecued some good if not remarkably tender steaks for us, and dinner was quite pleasant. The evening was marred by the arrival of the landlord who complained that we were making "noises like elephants" by stomping around in the apartment. The physical evidence that we were all sitting down didn't appear to deter him, nor RC's threat of kicking his obnoxious, patronising, stupid ass down the stairs.

TT tried to intervene, but sadly got shouted down by both men. By then things had gotten ugly, because the landlord had essentially shoved his foot in the door and was trying to force his way inside.

It went downhill from there, and even after the landlord had left RC and TT had an argument about how best to deal with the jackass.

I escaped upstairs to Fire's apartment (yes, it's the same landlord: what can I say? He's a jackass), and went back down later to continue D&D when the fighting was over. (Conflict Avoidance Girl strikes again!)

Anyhoo, Fire lent me two more books on Wicca, which look informative if quite different from the one I got at Mélange Magique. They're both by Scott Cunningham, and are Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner and Living Wicca: A Further Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. At least he spells magic properly. A lot of rather biased historical and anthropological analysis (poor Wiccans persecuted by the evil patriarchal Church) which tried really hard not to be biased and failed miserably. A lot of buddy-buddy type language typical of many books that make complex topics accepssible to the public, and lots of "don't worry, you can do it too!" type of encouragement, which I suppose is necessary if you don't want to scare some people off.

Will be delving further tonight. Am intrigued by candle/stone/herb aspect of Wicca, if not by the actual *religion*. It seems to me to be not fundamentally incompatible with Catholicism, as long as one doesn't actually use *magic* to work one's will upon the world. But using nature's properties to help oneself along and to help one become closer to God doesn't feel wrong to me.

Meh. Maybe I'm a heretic after all. Or too tree-huggerish for my own good. ;)

Is curtana's birthday tomorrow. I'm curious to see Project X, which I saw in its unshaped form yesterday. Wonder what it is?

Comments

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Fire lent me two more books on Wicca, which look informative if quite different from the one I got at Mélange Magique. They're both by Scott Cunningham, and are Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner and Living Wicca: A Further Guide for the Solitary Practitioner.

Probably the best beginner's books on the market for any seeker when it comes to Wicca and paganism. May I ask which was the other one you got?

At least he spells magic properly.

Um, just so you understand: many pagans spell "magick" that way to distinguish it from "magic," which is generally accepted as what sleight-of-hand practitioners do, not what pagans do. It's not a misspelling; it's almost a different word. It's certainly a different concept.

A lot of rather biased historical and anthropological analysis (poor Wiccans persecuted by the evil patriarchal Church) which tried really hard not to be biased and failed miserably.

Depends on your definition of "bias." I think that Pagans do have good reasons to feel abused by the Church. I'll just mention the Inquisition. Bias depends on what viewpoint you take; as a Pagan, although I can see a lot of good things about the Christian church, I think it seriously overstepped its bounds and tried to force its view down a lot of people's throats, sometimes by slitting the throats first, or stretching them with ropes hanging from a scaffold. Try looking at it from the viewpoint of people who have good reasons to be afraid of the Church, historically speaking, and I think that will make more sense.

A lot of buddy-buddy type language typical of many books that make complex topics accepssible to the public, and lots of "don't worry, you can do it too!" type of encouragement, which I suppose is necessary if you don't want to scare some people off.

Both true, but I think your view of it is a bit simplistic. I mean, if you're trying to learn how to read, do you start with a college-level book? No, you start with a primer. And as far as the encouragement -- hey, a lot of us have been raised with the whole "magick-is-EVIL-and-if-you-do-it-you'll-be-selling-your-soul-to-the-DEVIL-and-you're-messing-with-things-that-man-was-NOT-meant-to-KNOW!" mindset, and some of that "don't worry, you can do it too!" encouragement helps to dismantle that mindset somewhat, don't you think?

And "accepssible" - I like that word. "Acceptable" + "accessible"?

*sigh*

[curtana.livejournal.com]

I try not to step into these things, but I can't help myself here.

The whole "pagans persecuted by the Inquisition" myth irks me. The Inquisition (using that term for simplicity's sake - there was never an institution called "the Inquisition", rather several drives at various times, but I digress) was initiated to deal with Jews, Muslims, and heretics - *Christian* heretics - sects like the Cathars, Waldensians, and later the Beguines and Protestants. In fact, the Inquisition was specifically *not* authorized to investigate simple charges of witchcraft unless there was also heresy involved. When the Inquisition was established in 1231, the only pagans left in Europe were the Lithuanians. During the medieval period, the Inquisition was mainly active only in southern France and Italy. The goal of the Inquisition was to show people the error of their ways, not to kill them. Estimates range from 3000 to 5000 killed under the auspices of the Spanish Inquisition (considered the worst, in terms of bloodshed). Furthermore, the Inquisition never actually executed anyone themselves - they always handed the heretic over to the secular legal system for execution.

Witchcraft is another subject entirely, and one on which I have done considerable research. The witch trials of the 17th century were not at all affiliated with the Inquisition - they were mainly the product of Protestant regimes. To blame the church for witch trials (which were, incidentally, a terrible part of European history - the most current estimates suggest that approximately 60,000 people died) is taking too narrow a view of the subject, as it was a society-wide phenomenon. The alleged witches were not, however, pagans. As Alan Macfarlane has shown, witchcraft accusations were generally based on economic conflicts, friction between neighbours, personal quarrels and feelings of guilt, but not usually on actual magical, and certainly not on religious, practices.

There likely were people in the early modern period who considered themselves witches. They also considered themselves Christians, according to their own statements preserved in trial records.

Sorry, it's a sore point with me.

Hooray Macfarlane!

[forthright.livejournal.com]

While it's academic in tone, and not really *fun*, I can most heartily recommend to you Alan Macfarlane's Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England, which is one of the very best books written in the very small field of anthropological history. Or try Marvin Harris's Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches, which has some good parts on witch hunts in general, and is very readable.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Griff,

A few things I'd like to set straight: I wasn't criticising the content of the book so much as the style.

I understand that people spell "magic" differently in order to differentiate it from misuses and misapplications. It's still a pet peeve of mine, the same way I can't stand it when feminists write "woman" differently ("womon," "wimmyn," etc.). The whole idea of "empowering" a word by spelling it differently just makes my linguistics-trained heart skip several beats.

As for the language issue, I agree that one starts with a primer and not a college manual to start with. However, that doesn't give the author free reign to be condescending, as though we were mentally retarted children.

Don't get me wrong: I was pleasantly surprised by Cunningham, who actually kept that kind of talk to a minimum. Perhaps that didn't come out too clearly in my post.

Bleh. Gotta go back to work now. :P